Components Of Visuo-spatial Working Memory Research Articles

Mental rotation of figures explored by touch: A study of congenitally blind and sighted individuals

The form of mental images in congenitally blind people is intensely debated by researchers. In order to get a better insight into this topic, we conducted an experiment during which the task for congenitally blind individuals was to learn 2D tactile shapes and then mentally rotate them. The control group consisted of blindfolded sighted individuals. The visuo-spatial working memory model was treated as a theoretical framework for the theoretical debate. The aim of the study was to determine whether the accuracy of mental rotation is lower in congenitally blind than in sighted individuals and whether the difference in accuracy between the groups depends on the complexity of tactile figures. We also tested if the complexity of the figure and the background (grid or frame) influences the passive and active components of visuo-spatial working memory. Results show that congenitally blind subjects learned the shapes of figures by touch and rotated them faster than sighted subjects. It was established that the learning time depends on the complexity of figures and backgrounds. Figures presented on a complex background of a grid required more time to learn then figures in a frame. Moreover, sighted individuals required more time to learn complex figures than they did to learn simple ones. This was not the case with the congenitally blind. The rotation task was performed with greater accuracy for figures presented on a plain background compared to the complex background, and faster for figures drawn in a frame than for those on a grid. The study has shown that the active component of the visuo-spatial working memory engaged during mental rotation works with at least equal efficiency in congenitally blind individuals compared to sighted ones.

Effect of Visuo-Spatial Working Memory on Distance Estimation in Map Learning

AbstractThis paper investigated the role of visuo-spatial working memory in distance estimation during map learning. Participants were asked to learn a map and perform a distance estimation task on the basis of the memorized map. The capacities of visual (i.e. visual cache) and spatial (i.e. inner scribe) components of visuo-spatial working memory were assessed for each participant and distance estimate errors were compared across high and low visuo-spatial capacity participants. The visual component predicted performance accuracy. In addition, low visual capacity participants provided longer distance estimates between two locations as a function of the number of intervening points between them. Although spatial component capacity also predicted estimated distances, it did not affect performance accuracy or estimated distance bias as a function of intervening points. It appears that distance is estimated on the basis of visual component capacity, and that low visual capacity individuals try to draw upon non-spatial information to support a limited visual capacity.

Visuospatial working memory in specific language impairment: A meta-analysis

We conducted a meta-analysis of the data from studies comparing visuospatial working memory (WM) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children. The effect sizes of 21 studies (including 32 visuospatial storage tasks and 9 visuospatial central executive (CE) tasks) were identified via computerized database searches and the reference sections of the identified studies. Meta-analyses and moderator analyses were conducted to examine the magnitude of the differences in visuospatial storage and CE, and their relation to the inclusion criteria used for SLI and the age of the children. The results showed significant effect sizes for visuospatial storage (d=0.49) and visuospatial CE (d=0.63), indicating deficits in both components of visuospatial WM in children with SLI. The moderator analyses showed that greater impairment in visuospatial storage was associated with more pervasive language impairment, whereas age was not significant associated with visuospatial WM. The finding of deficits in visuospatial WM suggests domain-general impairments in children with SLI. It raises questions about the language-specificity of a diagnosis of SLI. Careful attention should thus be paid to both verbal and visuospatial WM in clinical practice, and especially in those children with pervasive language impairments.

The short term effect of nicotine abstinence on visuospatial working memory in smoking patients with schizophrenia

Background: Patients with schizophrenia suffer from wide range of deficits in neurocognitive functions of the brain, including visuospatial working memory. Aims: This study aims at evaluating the effect of short-term smoking abstinence on different components of visuospatial working memory in smoker patients with schizophrenia as well as possible reversal effect of a nicotine patch. Methods: In this trial, 45 male smoker patients with schizophrenia (Razi Hospital, Tabriz, Iran, 2010) were randomly divided into three groups. One group experienced a short time (overnight) smoking abstinence; one group used a single dose of nicotine patch (21 mg) after an overnight smoking abstinence and one group with no intervention or restrain on smoking was considered as control. The function of visuospatial working memory was tested by the brief visuospatial memory test-revised (BVMT-R) at the baseline and after the intervention. Results: The three groups were matched regarding age, educational level and the initial elements of cognitive performance. Between-the-group analysis showed that patients with an overnight smoking abstinence had a significant decrease in percent retained score and an increase in recognition biases compared to patients using nicotine patch and controls. No significant changes were observed in patints using nicotine patch or controls. Conclusions: Smoking abstinence results in visuospatial disabilities in male smoker patients with schizophrenia, including delayed recall and recognition biases.

Impairment of simultaneous-spatial working memory in nonverbal (visuospatial) learning disability: A treatment case study

We report the case of B.A., an 11-year-old child with a nonverbal (visuospatial) learning disability (NLD). Detailed psychometric and neuropsychological assessment on visuospatial working memory (VSWM) revealed specific simultaneous-spatial working memory impairment. A treatment targeting simultaneous-spatial working memory was given to B.A. for seven sessions (over one month); this resulted in improvement of simultaneous-spatial working memory, with the benefit that the training was maintained after six months. Discussion of clinical and theoretical implications is given, taking account of the distinctions that can be made between the different components of visuospatial working memory and different subtypes of NLD, thus allowing the tailoring of specific training to target the impaired VSWM component.

Aging and the Intrusion Superiority Effect in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory

ABSTRACT This study investigated the active component of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in younger and older adults testing the hypotheses that elderly individuals have a poorer performance than younger ones and that errors in active VSWM tasks depend, at least partially, on difficulties in avoiding intrusions (i.e., avoiding already activated information). In two experiments, participants were presented with sequences of matrices on which three positions were pointed out sequentially: their task was to process all the positions but indicate only the final position of each sequence. Results showed a poorer performance in the elderly compared to the younger group and a higher number of intrusion (errors due to activated but irrelevant positions) rather than invention (errors consisting of pointing out a position never indicated by the experiementer) errors. The number of errors increased when a concurrent task was introduced (Experiment 1) and it was affected by different patterns of matrices (Experiment 2). In general, results show that elderly people have an impaired VSWM and produce a large number of errors due to inhibition failures. However, both the younger and the older adults' visuo-spatial working memory was affected by the presence of activated irrelevant information, the reduction of the available resources, and task constraints.

Visuospatial working memory in learning from multimedia systems

Abstract Multimedia systems involve the association of various types of information: verbal information presented visually or auditorily, static or dynamic pictorial information, and sound information. In a cognitive approach, integrating this information involves complex processes constrained by properties of the learner's cognitive system, and especially by the capacity of working memory. This paper, reports on an experiment focused on the integration of verbal and pictorial information when students learn a series of physics concepts. The involvement of the visuo‐spatial working memory was investigated by means of a dual‐task paradigm. Results show that pictorial information enhances the learning process. They also suggest that the visual and the spatial components of visuospatial working memory should be considered separately. Finally, they emphasise the need to consider the limitations in cognitive resources available to the learner.

Memory Span for Arabic Numerals and Digit Words: Evidence for a Limited-capacity, Visuo-spatial Storage System

Six experiments examined the determinants of the numeral advantage effect: the finding that memory span for Arabic numerals ( 1, 2, 3, etc.) is greater than for digit words ( one, two, three, etc.). The speed of item identification for numeral and digit words was unrelated to memory span for the same items and a larger memory span for numerals persisted under concurrent random generation (Experiment 1). The numeral advantage, however, was abolished when the items were presented in random locations within an invisible 3×3 grid (Experiment 2) and in locations on a horizontal plane that ran contrary to the natural direction of reading (Experiment 3). When the items were presented in the same location, a disruption of the spatial component of visuo-spatial working memory eliminated the numeral advantage (Experiment 4), whereas interference with the visual component of the system did not (Experiment 5). When the items were spatially distributed in a 3×3 matrix, however, neither visual nor spatial interference abolished the effect (Experiment 6). Taken together, these findings suggest that the numeral advantage effect is mediated by discrete components in visuo-spatial working memory dedicated to the temporary storage and renewal of visual codes and questions the assumption that the underlying mechanisms in immediate, visual serial recall are equivalent between stimulus categories.

Visuo-spatial working memory: Structures and variables affecting a capacity measure

The present paper examines the issue of the capacity of visuo-spatial working memory. A series of experiments test the hypothesis that two different components are critical in visuo-spatial working memory (passive store and active imagery operations), and, thereafter, attempt to specify the variables that affect the capacity of the passive store component. In the experiments, congenitally blind and sighted participants were asked to remember the spatial positions of target objects in two-dimensional matrices, with or without simultaneously performing a sequence of spatially-based imagery operations. We considered both the positions recall performance (the passive storage component) and the sequential imagery processing performance (the active processing component). We suggest that the two components of visuo-spatial working memory are independent. We also propose that both the number of relevant matrices and the number of target objects within each matrix affect the capacity of visuo-spatial working memory, with the latter factor possibly playing a greater role than the former one.